Violence and uncertainty ahead of France's decisive parliamentary vote

The last campaign surveys ahead of this weekend's decisive second-round run-off in France point to a hung parliament, with National Rally, the leading party after the first round, set to win at least 220 seats in parliament.

At least 289 MPs are needed for a majority - so the populist party would need to match or exceed this tally to be able to form France's first far-right government since the Second World War.

The leftist coalition the New Popular Front is predicted to win at least 165 MPs, and President Macron's party is expected to secure a minimum of 120 seats.

More than 50 French candidates and activists have been physically attacked ahead of this weekend's decisive election vote.

The French government chief spokesperson and her team were attacked by several people earlier this week, leaving one of her campaigners with a broken jaw.

Prisca Thevenot, an MP for Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party, was putting up election posters with her team when a group of people attacked them on July 3.

On July 5, the interior minister said that at least 50 people had been subject to aggression ahead of the second round of the general election on Sunday.

Some 30,000 police officers, including 5,000 in the capital, will be on-duty on Sunday to try to respond to any unrest, which some politicians fear would break out in the case of a far-right victory.

Opposition parties from the left and center are hoping people will vote tactically to block the far-right's path to government.

However, National Rally remains confident of winning an outright majority. The party wants to drastically reduce legal and illegal immigration, beef up border security, and repeal President Macron's contentious pension reforms.

The 28-year-old party leader and potential prime minister Jordan Bardella, who is of Italian and Algerian descent, represents the new face of the populist group. The man he is hoping to replace is Gabriel Attal.

The current prime minister has spent the week campaigning for centrist candidates, and fighting to deprive the far-right of an absolute majority.

This week's discussions and calculations have considered the possibility of a German-style grand coalition of different parties.

The government says this may be necessary to keep the far-right from power. Whatever happens, France will be entering uncharted territory this weekend.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday